Starting to Hike Age 60 #3

“One of the most popular trails, this trail leads to a beautiful mountain lake. There are views of the Pack River drainage and Selkirk Crest along the entire route. There are several nice campsites, and a bear proof storage container at the lake.” (Sandpoint Ranger District)

“Harrison Peak at 7292', though not the highest peak in North Idaho's Selkirk range, certainly has the most striking profile. It stands guard over Harrison Lake, one of the Selkirk's largest and most popular lakes. Trail 6 is well maintained and works up the drainage with a few switchbacks thrown in. Your time from trail head to summit will probably fall in the 2 to 2.5 hour range with an elevation gain of approximately 2400'."

As I am reading about our next adventure hiking the beautiful mountains of Boundary County, I am trying to weasel out. Ummmm, being that I am not wild about bears and that you have to "plunge into the brush and go cross country" and "work your way up the boulder field" and "ascend some flat sloping rock slabs presenting on Class 3 climb" and "elevation gain is 2400" (which differs from the Sandpoint Ranger District guide), I am once again thinking of sitting this one out and communing with nature from my deck. I think I scare myself looking these things up on the Internet and in the guide books. Stay tuned.

So we didn't actually “climb the peak”. We took the trail to the lake which didn't require any Class 3 climbs. However, we did traverse some great granite slabs with little Cairns on them. They have lots of purposes, but one of them is to denote a path. Often a pointed rock is included in the stack that indicates the direction of travel. This kind of cairn is called a duck or duckie because the pointed rock indicating the route looks like a beak. But being the novice hiker that I am, I am looking all around for a person named Karen thinking why would anyone want to stand around on a trail to guide people along? Maybe it is like a race where you are given a glass of water and an encouraging word like "only 3 more miles to go". Actually, cairns are stacked rocks which look pretty cool sitting in isolation on a huge granite slab of rock. I found it lacking because there were no arms pointing in any particular direction and I was really disturbed when we found the next cairn which had been knocked down so all that was left was two rocks on top of each other. That could be like any combination of rocks up there, Hellooooo! Maybe we should bring along a few "blings" to dress Cairn up (yes, it is pronounced Karen) like little hats, google eyes, scarves for her neck, or pretty ponytail holders that are ruffled, or doll dresses. Then she would really stand out. A little maintenance is all she needs.

As usual, the ride up was every bit as exciting as the hike what with a mountain road with bumps, ridges, ruts, trenches, and swales. My vocabulary has expanded in this hiking endeavor. With each, uh, bump, we are taken by surprise with a profuse apology from the driver. Oh, sorry, we hear. Meanwhile, my well worn cowboy hat that I wear hiking has one more ridge in it and not necessarily in the right spot. We have such stimulating conversations such as the red, white, and blue plastic flowers that grace the fence posts of one particular cabin we pass on Pack River. We discuss the possibilities of such an endeavor and what it might look like at Christmas or even Halloween. None of us can actually see living up that far from civilization because what would you do if you are making some great culinary creation in the kitchen and you have run out of milk or an egg? It would take you all day just to run to the grocery store!

One particular story stuck in my head which happened to be on the return trip down the mountain. Once or twice as we were bouncing along a little rodent would scuttle across in front of the truck. These were identified as ground squirrels and I guess they most often appear in pairs. Now I know what most of you are thinking! They are not, however, necessarily mating. They are just goading each other in a daredevil fashion to run as fast as they can in front of trucks that happen to be coming up the hill (or down). Often if one of them is squished in the process the other one may eat the victim. Therefore, such a conversation might go something like this:

"Hey, Chicka, you can do it. Get right beside the road and then on the count of 3, run really fast!"

"Oh, Chester, I don't think I have it in me"

"Yeah, it is really easy, Chicka. You just have to focus and don't look back."

"But...."

"Ok, here comes one. 1,2, 3 RUNNNNNNNN. No, wait come back!"

SPLAT

Chester says, "Man, I told her not to look back. Oh, well, let's throw her on the Barby. Now where is that spork?"

"Dear Lord, thank you for the snack on which we feed. We wish poor Chicka had more speed. A-men"

But, I digress. This hike was interesting because we forged many little creeks bubbling happily across the path. The most challenging one happened to be the bottom end of the lake as four of us went beyond the lunch spot to find, YES, the geocache! It was the only way to traverse the shoreline so off we went jumping boulder to log, log to log, log to boulder hoping all the way that we didn't fall in the lake. Looking back though, I guess the worst scenario would have been that we would fall in up to our thighs and be very wet and soggy on the return trip. This, I might add, is the part where we "plunge into the brush and go cross country" as aforementioned. We found the geocache under a huge boulder not really in plain sight. So we do what all groups do, we volunteer the littlest one to crawl under and get it.

On the way back to our resting spot, we amble along looking for this half-toilet that is supposed to be up there that "you gotta see". Well, we never found it. I wonder what someone would want with a half-toilet? We wondered if we should be taking pictures of all the North Idaho outhouses in the forest and make a coffee table book. Anyway, we made it back to our resting spot and the others are laying across the rocks sunbathing like a couple of prairie dogs on a hot day. With that little side trip the trek today would average 5 miles total. What was I thinking? I should have been sunbathing like a prairie dog.

This is the first hike we have been on where we actually met other hikers. One of them was nice enough to surprise us with a bear growl as they were coming up the trail behind us. Mind you, I am the only one looking around in the bushes to see where the bear might be hiding. They pass us snickering; teenagers, of course, going up the trail like it was a walk in the mall. I might mention here, if you haven't read any of my other hubs about hiking, that we are a group of 40 and over women hikers. So that being said, yet another group whizzes by and this is the one that says to us at the lake, "Hey, you guys finally made it!"

A group of two young mothers and kids came up as we were resting, (uh, eating our lunch and searching for the geocache), having arrived shortly before our adventure in the woods. The little kids proceeded to strip off all their clothes to participate in the polar bear plunge in the lake. One of our hikers got so far as to dip a pinkie in it. A fellow hiker who passed us on the path as we were just getting started was going to go fishing. He didn't catch anything, but he said he wasn't really trying. One thing we found quite annoying was the paparazzi that seemed to be everywhere up there. We could turn around and someone was always taking a picture. Seems that on this trip, everyone had a camera.

Well, we had fun once again conversing, commiserating, communicating, dialoging, consulting, and generally, being full of beans. Our fearless leader once again led us astray, but she has this knack of getting you there without you realizing it. Before you know it, you have climbed Mt. Everest and still live to see another day. By this time next summer, I will be rock hard like Carin although I can't say I want to end up with that body type.